When I Was A Donk: Barry Greenstein

Barry Greenstein has been one of the game’s top players for the better part of the last three decades. The 56-year-old PokerStars pro regularly competes in the world’s biggest cash games and has over $7.8 million in lifetime career tournament earnings.

The man nicknamed, “The Robin Hood of Poker” has one World Poker Tour title, along with three World Series of Poker bracelets. Most recently, he finished second in a $1,500 stud event at the 2012 WSOP.

Card Player caught up with Greenstein to talk about his years of experience and how he’s learned from prior mistakes.

“When I first started playing tournaments, the tournament players were much, much weaker than the cash game players. It’s a little different today, given how much the fields have grown, but that’s what it was like back then.

“There were a couple of times when I got heads up in a tournament against one of these players, and I found myself dancing around and making moves that were way over their heads. I was trying to outplay them, but all I really had to do was just play solid, fundamental poker to beat them.

“I found that when I played fancy, it ended up costing me the win. Since then, I’ve learned that you can sometimes play to the level of your opponent. When you run a bluff, you need to run a bluff that your opponent will understand.

“There are these seminal hands in a player’s memory bank that always stand out, either because they cost you a lot of money or a tournament. They’ll be times when I’m involved in a hand, and I’ll flash back as much as twenty years where I was stuck in a similar situation.

“It’s a continual progression. It’s not like I don’t make mistakes now. It’s really a daily adjustment. There may be things yesterday in a tournament that will help me out today. That’s the value of experience in a poker career.” ♠